The present invention relates to an information inquiry support apparatus and an information inquiry support method for supporting to select destination of inquiry about information, by applying an information filtering method for making it easier to pick up necessary information from information memory apparatus or information communication network, and an information distribution apparatus and an information distribution method for distributing information suited to the requirement of the inquirer.
Along with the recent advancement in the social foundation for information and communications, the information communication network has become gigantic in scale, and the information communication quantity is sharply increasing. Today, as compared with the information quantity that can be processed by an individual user or a group (a set of plural users), the accessible information quantity is far greater, and the number of partners (individuals, groups, enterprises, etc.) to which the information can be transmitted from one person (or enterprise) is also tremendous. It is hence difficult to acquire the necessary information from a huge quantity of information, or search a person versed in specific information, or find out objects to transmit specific information.
One of the prior arts relating to this need is information retrieval using a key word logical expression. That is, from hundreds of thousands or millions of cases of information, information suited to the key word logical expression is picked up.
In the conventional retrieval using the key word logical expression, however, since the user is requested to set the logical expression adequately about the key word, adequate retrieval (as well as registration of retrieval condition) is impossible unless the user has enough knowledge about characteristics of the stored data group (for example, on which condition is determined the key word of the desired data), and system structure (for example, whether the key word is built in the thesaurus system or not). Therefore, a beginner could not pick up the information (or receive the distribution) adequately.
Yet, the obtained result only conforms to the logical expression about the key word, and if the key word is matched, the information content may be different from what is needed. Besides, it is not easy for the user to pick up the information from the highest degree of concern from numerous retrieval results.
In the inventions previously disclosed by the present applicant, Japanese Laid-open Patent No. 9-288683 and Japanese Laid-open Patent No. 10-240762, the information could be quantitatively evaluated according to the necessity for the user. As a result, the above problems are partly solved (to present the information inquiry support apparatus and information filtering method, allowing even the beginner to filter the information at high precision, easy to pick up information of higher necessity for the user).
The invention in Japanese Patent Application No. 9-308386 previously filed by the present applicant has realized the information filtering apparatus and information filtering method capable of quantifying the effective need even if plural users jointly retrieve the information.
These previous inventions have solved the problems when receiving the information, but have not solved the problems of discovering the person versed in specific information, that is, finding out the destination of inquiry, and distribution of information to proper individuals and/or groups.
The invention, further advanced from the conventional information filtering apparatus and information filtering method, presents an information inquiry support apparatus and an information inquiry support method for finding out the person versed in specific information, and also an information distribution apparatus and an information distribution method for distributing information to proper people efficiently. As a result, in the information communication infrastructure which continues to progress, exchange of information of substantially high quality is realized.
To achieve the object, the information inquiry support apparatus of the invention, in order to search the user suited for inquiring about specific information, from a plurality of individual users and/or group users using database system or information communication network, comprises learning means for evaluating whether the user is interested or not, about plural pieces of information and creating a profile which is an evaluation table about each one of plural key words, which are elements expressing the information contents, on the basis of the said user evaluation of the plural pieces of information, input means for entering the specific information for inquiry, information evaluation means for calculating the need signal expressing quantitatively the degree of concern about the specific information in every user by using the profile, and means for issuing name of the plurality of individual users and/or group users with the corresponding value of the need signal which represents the degree of fitness to the inquiry.
The information distribution apparatus of the invention further includes an information distribution section for distributing specific information and related information to a plurality of individual users and/or group users high in the concern about the specific information, that is, high in the necessity, by making use of the output content of the information inquiry support apparatus.
Thus, supposing there is information having a specific content, it can be quantitatively evaluated how much the user is interested in this information or needs it. Therefore, the user of the inquiry destination about the information can be easily selected, and the information can be efficiently distributed to the user having high concern and high necessity.